Good Friday... Not for the Kinghorn cars!!!

This has been the worst storm of the year for us, hands down. Even worse than the time the car was frozen shut and I couldn't get to school. It really snowed a lot so I decided against driving to Lansing. Instead we went to the store as a family. On the way home we were getting off of I194 onto Columbia Ave. in Battle Creek. It was pretty icy so I was going slowly. There was a longer line of cars in the right turn lane than the left turn lane at the light, but when I went to merge left into the left lane my car kept going forward. I managed to slow it down to a near stop, but the final force that stopped us was the bumper of the car in front of us. The impact wasn't too hard and the airbags didn't go off. We were also all fine (including the older couple in the car we hit) just a bit shaken up. We pulled off into a parking lot and waited nearly an hour for a police officer to come. Even though I was probably going less than 10 miles an hour when I hit the car, and the road was solid ice and wasn't salted, I got a ticket for going faster than the conditions would allow. I guess that is life. Even with the conditions if I had slowed down sooner it probably could have been avoided, but where I was supposed to be heading (the left turn lane) I still had another 150 feet or more till the next car. Leah and I were a bit shaken up, and Lexi was furious that we were not taking her to Grandma Val's house. Every time I got out of the car she would throw a fit because if I wasn't in the car I couldn't drive her to Grandma's house.

You've probably noticed that I have pictures of two wrecked cars above. Yup, the excitement wasn't over yet. We got everything taken care of with the Suzuki accident, called in our claim, dropped Lexi off at her grandparents' house and switched the Suzuki for the Jeep. We decided it would be best to take Leah into the hospital to have the baby checked out and make sure everything was ok. Better safe than sorry. Everything seemed fine but they were going to be keeping Leah for some observations for a few more hours so I left to take care of a few errands we had to finish today. I was driving towards home when a guy ran a red light right in front of me and I T-boned his car right on the passenger side. I'm not quite sure what happened next, but I ended up turned around a complete 180 degrees and back in the crosswalk I had driven through before I hit the guy. Newton's third law works. Thankfully no one was hurt too bad. The woman in the passenger seat I hit, hit her head on the window, but she was up walking around and talking to the officer. An ambulance and fire engine came to make sure we were all ok. The damage to both vehicles was pretty bad. It was also a blessing that a cop was at the intersection and saw the whole thing happen. The guy thought he had a green light and I know I had a green light, but without the cop there it would have been my word against his. Still, I think I totaled the Jeep. The front end is all smashed in and the radiator was busted and dripping coolant all over the place. Part of the fender is also rammed up against one of the front tires. Unfortunately the guy's insurance had lapsed, but the officer said that if he got it current in the next 10 days it should cover it. However, I'm assuming that the cost to fix the Jeep will be more than the vehicle is worth. We'll have to see.

I was so shaken up. What are the odds of getting in two accidents with two different cars in the same day? Even more odd was the fact that both of the cars I hit had recently been repaired from other accidents. I was even driving extremely carefully because of the bad road conditions. I managed to handle the first accident ok, but the second one really put me in shock. I am so thankful that Leah wasn't in the Jeep with me, because that accident really could have hurt her and/or the baby. I barely managed to drive the Jeep the two miles home and parked it in the back yard. Then Jim, Leah's ex father-in-law was nice enough to pick me up at home and go to the hospital to pick Leah up. Things happen for a reason. Maybe someday we'll know the reason for today's double mishap. We're just so thankful to Heavenly Father that we emerged safe and unscathed and that nobody else was hurt. We're now safe at home, shaken and carless, but ok.